Note: Translator Pauline Bancroft Flach died in 1966, less than 70 years ago. Therefore, this work is protected by copyright, restricting your legal rights to reproduce it. However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now. Read more about copyright.
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128 THE MIRACLES OF AJVTICHRIST
X
THE SIROCCO
After that two years passed quietly. The only
thing that happened at Diamante and in all Sicily
was that the people grew ever poorer and poorer.
Then there came an autumn, and it was about the
time when the wine was to be harvested.
At that time songs generally rise full-fledged to
the lips; at that time new and beautiful melodies
stream from the mandolins.
Then crowds of young people go out to the
vineyards, and there is work and laughter all day, dance
and laughter all night, and no one knows what
sleep is.
Then the bright ocean of air over the mountain
is more beautiful than at any other time. Then the
air is full of wit; sparkling glances flash through
it; it gets warmth not only from the sun, but also
from the glowing faces of the young women of
Etna.
But that autumn all the vineyards were devastated
by the phylloxera. No grape-pickers pushed their
way between the vines; no long lines of women
carrying heaped-up baskets on their heads wound up
to the presses, and at night there was no dancing on
the flat roofs.
That autumn no clear, light October air lay over
the Etna region. As if it had been in league with
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